No Hacking Cybertronians, Skye!
by Wolfrunner99-2
Summary: Coulson's team meet the Autobots, and they keep in touch after a revenge prank. When Skye is captured and tortured by Ian Quinn, will she finally be able to find out who her parents are? And what's with the voice in her head? Rated T for mentions of torture and language. Also, Skyeward and Fitzsimmons! Oh, and Jazz is ALIVE! Okay, I think that's it...
1. Road Trip to NEST

**This was meant to just be a fun, light one shot to get me back in the habit of writing, and it ended up being more. Just so you know, all the stuff about hacking is probably false, I don't know anything about hacking, but as this is AU, just go with it. Also, this takes place after season 1 of AoS and after Transformers, the first movie. ENJOY!**

**~Wolfy**

Phil Coulson watched Sky out of the corner of his eye discretely. He was doing his best to make sure that the girl that he had come to see as a daughter was alright. She had gone so much, and he hadn't seen her smile in almost two weeks, and she had only smiled because Fitz had finally woken up with no ill effects.

The quick witted hacker that they had kidnapped from her van had pulled their team together, made them a family. Her people skills, soft words, and forgiving nature made her an invaluable asset, not to mention her computer skills. He had actually gotten an annoyed phone call from Tony Stark, complaining on how she had hacked into JARVIS and had made it so the AI could speak in nothing but French for three days. That short only because Coulson had made her undo it.

"Hey, AC, you're going to burn a hole in the back of my head if you keep staring at me like then. Then Jemma's gonna be mad at you for killing me from staring," Skye teased. Phil realized that he had been staring. Oops.

"Who are you talking to?" he asked, getting up to look over her shoulder. "Not telling anyone the secrets of SHIELD? Because that would be a breach in National Security," he added, only half joking.

"Disclose the most closely kept secrets with the Director of SHIELD not even ten feet away? Even I'm that reckless," Skye answered, her attention back on her screen as a pudgy young man slid back into view.

"Hey, Glen. This is my boss, AC!" Skye said cheerily. Coulson stared impassively at the man, then shifted his attention to the soldier marching up behind Glen. Looks like Glen was in trouble.

"Glen, you had better not be running your mouth about NEST to some civilian," the soldier snapped.

"Wh-what? N-NO! This is Skye, from SHIELD. She's a friend of mine. She's the one that taught me how to hack!" Glen protested, defending his friend.

"Hi!" Skye said cheerfully.

The soldier seemed a little taken aback. "Hello. So, if you're skye, who's the other guy?" he demanded.

"Who? Oh, AC! This is my boss, Phil Coulson. Director of SHIELD. He was making sure that I wasn't giving out national security secrets and all," she said, rolling her eyes at the notion.

"Major William Lennox. I lead the NEST team. Nice to meet you. I'm sorry about what happened with Hydra and all that. I heard that you and your elite team were coming here, so you could meet everyone here," Lennox said, his demeanor going from intimidating to kind in a second.

"We're actually on our way there, now. ETA is half an hour," Skye put in happily.

Lennox looked alarmed and checked something, his expression not changing. "We don't have you on any of our grids!" he protested.

"Of course not! We're off-grid for a reason. I hacked into your computers so you guys couldn't see us," Skye told him, smiling. "That was a fun challenge to break through, you guys have almost as good of firewalls as Tony Stark!"

Lennox appeared to be at a loss for words. Glen smirked. "I told you that she taught me. Are you really that surprised that she could hack something that I made," he said in praise. Skye grinned wider. Coulson saw that and a small smile slipped onto his face. It was gone just as quickly, but Lennox and Glen saw it.

"Is there a problem over there? I think I just saw the grey man over there smile!" Glen said, leaning closer to the screen.

Skye gave him a look. "AC DOES show emotions. He's not a robot, like-" she cut herself off, a small choked sound coming from her mouth, and a few tears slid from her eyes. "Sorry, I have to step out for a minute," she explained before making a hasty escape.

Coulson looked after her worriedly, mimicking the looks the two men on the video screen had. "She was referring to an Agent that was once part of our team. She and Agent Ward were very close, and she took his betrayal very hard. She used to tease him about how he was more like a robot than a person. Normally got him to show some emotion," Coulson explained.

"Understood. We will see you in twenty-five minutes, sir," Lennox said, shutting off the video link before Glen could ask more questions.

Coulson sighed and closed the laptop, carrying it to Skye's bunk. She was sobbing against her pillow, again.

"You know, if you keep doing that, your pillow is going to sue you for pillow abuse," Coulson teased lightly as she punched her pillow.

"AC, did you just make a joke?" she hiccuped, wiping furiously at her eyes. She sat up so Coulson could sit on the bed.

"I can do that," he defended himself, pulling the young adult into a hug. She leaned into him, her leftover sobs quieted as he held her.

"I shouldn't be crying still. It's over and done with," she said.

"You were very close to him, he was your S.O. It's only natural for you to be upset about it," he said, rubbing small circles on her back.

"Do you think Fitzsimmons need anything?" she asked hopefully. Anything to get her mind away from Ward.

"Why don't we check on them. We'll be landing in a few minutes, anyways," Coulson said, helping her to her feet and leading her to the lab.

"Skye! Thank goodness, Fitz here-"

"Skye, could ya kindly explain to Jemma-"

"-he thinks that miracle whip is-"

"-that mayonnaise is clearly-"

"-better than mayo!"

"-worse than miracle whip!"

Skye took a minute to translate Fitzsimmons to Skye-ish. "Fitz says that miracle whip is better than mayo, and you disagree, Simmons," she finally said. They nodded.

"I agree with Jemma. I hate miracle whip," Skye said. Jemma smiled at her and hugged her.

"I TOLD you that she would agree with me, Fitz. She does, after all, have very good taste," Jemma said, mock glaring at FItz. They still thought that the two of them dating was a secret.

"Yeah, Fitz. I have good taste. Good enough taste to know that a monkey would make an awful pet," Skye teased. Fitz sputtered as he tried to explain the benefits of having a monkey around, not that anyone was listening to him.

"Buckle up, people. Wheels down in five." Agent May's voice came over the comm.

"And mayonnaise IS better than miracle whip," Triplett as he walked into the lab, arms crossed.

They went through the landing routine, Skye tripping and nearly landing on the newly restored Lola. Phil caught her before she hit it, giving her his usual warning.

"Don't touch Lola. The last time you did that, she came back ruined," he reminded.

"Well then, next time I'll jump out of the BUS with the truck," she responded dryly. The ramp opened up, revealing a small group of soldiers and a lot of vehicles. A LOT of vehicles.

"How about no more jumping out of the BUS in vehicles. Not without permission," Coulson said, looking at the assembled group.

"Glad you landed safely," Lennox said. "You going to introduce us to everyone?"

"This is Agent Simmons, our biochemist and emergency medic for when we are too far away from medical assistance."

"Which means every time one of them gets hurt," she grumbled, her kind british lilt showing amusement.

"Right, Jemma," Coulson agreed. "This is Agent Fitz, our engineer. He and Agent Simmons work as a team."

"Not to be rude or anything, but you wouldn't happen to be related to a Reggie Simmons, would you?" a well muscled soldier asked, standing next to Lennox.

Simmons seemed to deflate a little bit. "He's not here, is he? He's my... overly enthusiastic uncle. Please tell me he's not here!" she said, looking around worriedly. There was a collective sigh of relief. Apparently Reggie Simmons was not popular around here.

"Don't worry. He's not here," the man assured.

"Back to the introductions," Coulson said, a small smile of amusement on his face. "This is Agent May, our pilot. Just the pilot," Coulson said.

"If I am just the pilot, then you are just a civilian," May grumbled. Coulson ignored her.

"This is Agent Triplett, our specialist. I am Director Coulson, new Director of SHIELD, and this is Agent Skye, our resident computer genius and new field agent" Coulson finished, a sweeping gesture to the team as he introduced everyone.

"Hi!" Skye said cheerfully, going up to shake each of their hands. Coulson smiled again, shaking his head at her antics. She got halfway over before Coulson spoke up.

"Skye, wait until they introduce themselves," he admonished gently. She mock glared at him but came back to the group.

"Sor-ry for trying to be nice, AC," she grumbled.

Lennox stepped forward. "I'm Major Lennox, this is Sergeant Epps, and the others are all holoforms of the Autobots. I'll let them introduce themselves," Lennox said.

"Thank you, Major Lennox," a deep baritone voice intoned, coming from the holoform of a man in his thirties, cowboy hat over sandy blond hair, shadowing dark blue eyes. He had a five-o'clock shadow on his face. He was wearing a red plaid shirt and dark blue jeans, cowboy boots finishing the look. "Greetings. I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Th-"

Skye interrupted him before he could continue. "You're the semi!"

Optimus Prime smiled at her kindly. "Indeed, my alt-form is the semi. Very good deduction skills, Agent Avery. Now, to my left is Ironhide, our weapons specialist. Ironhide, don't you dare pull out your cannons, and he is partners with Major Lennox."

Skye once again interrupted the alien leader. "He's the badass Top Kick, right?" she asked. The holoform, looking like a hard core biker, grinned at her.

"I like her, Prime. Can we keep her?"

Optimus gave him a look. "Ironhide's alt-form is indeed the Top Kick. Next to him is our Commanding Medical Officer, Ratchet-"

This time it was Ironhide who interrupted, "*cough* Hatchet *cough*"

Ratchet, whose holoform looked like a man in his late thirties, well built, and wearing clothes with oils stains and such on them, suddenly had a wrench in his hand and hit Ironhide upside the head with it. "Don't call me that, or I'll have you in my med bay for the next orn for that check-up you keep avoiding," he growled.

"You're the Emergency Hummer then," Skye concluded. Ratchet nodded. Skye looked around, seeing that there was no one else for them to meet.

"NOW can I go and greet them?" she asked Coulson.

"Yes, Skye, NOW you can go greet them," Coulson said, mimicking her tone. She smiled and ran up, forgoing a handshake, instead outright hugging Lennox and Epps. She did shake hands with the Autobots, though.

"You guys are so lucky! Getting to be around all of these cool guys! Most of the stuff we come across tries to kill us," Skye told Lennox. He didn't seem to know quite what to do with the over excited woman.

"Skye! Let them breathe!" May ordered. Skye's face twisted in distaste, but she backed up.

"May, don't ruin all of her fun. I haven't seen her this happy since..." Coulson murmured to her.

"I know. Maybe it will delay her from hacking into this place," May responded.

"So, what kind of firewalls do you guys have? What level of encryptions, o-" Skye began.

"Skye, no hacking!" Coulson warned. Skye's face fell, like she had gotten a Christmas present and he had taken it away from her. "Don't give me that look. No hacking the base," he ordered.

"She probably couldn't get past the first level of encryption that we have on the base," Ironhide grumbled, probably thinking Skye couldn't hear him. She froze and slowly turned to face him.

"Well now I DEFINITELY hacking this place!" she said, running back into the BUS and snagging her laptop.

Coulson rounded on the holoform. "You are an idiot!" he said before marching back into the BUS, hoping that he could change Skye's mind about hacking into the base.

Ironhide looked at the remaining Agents. "What did I do?"

"You insulted Skye's hacking skills. She hacked SHIELD on an old laptop that she won in a bet, using the wifi of an internet cafe. SHIELD had the best firewalls we have ever made, until NEST showed up. Do you know how long she has been itching to hack into here?" Simmons said, glaring at him.

"GOT IT!" a voice screamed. It was Skye's.

"What has she got?" Ratchet asked, stepping closer to the BUS.

Coulson came storming out, looking pissed. "She got passed the first level of encryption," he grumbled. Then he composed himself. "I would prepare yourselves for a lot of pranks," he warned.

A collective groan from the team, they had been forced to go through Skye hacking the BUS comm system and playing with music and such, so that if you said a certain word or phrase the plane would react by either telling you that there would be an emergency landing, or there would be pseudo-turbulence and they would have to sit through half an hour of bumpy flying no matter what May did.

A soldier ran over, looking nervously at the holoforms, but reporting to Lennox. "Sir, someone is hacking into our database. It's not Cybertronian, but they are pros. Estimated time for them to be all the way through is half an hour if they continue at the speed they're going at."

"Then shut it down," Lennox said.

"We already DID! They turned it back on remotely and continued from where they left off. Which means that they are on base, sir," the soldier said.

"I already knew that. Keep watching the progress. Thank you for informing me," Lennox said with a sigh. The soldier ran off.

"Can you get her to stop?" Lennox asked. Coulson glared at Ironhide.

"Yes. Ironhide needs to apologize to her. She has worked hard to get her skills up to this and she doesn't take kindly to someone she just met insulting her."

Ironhide sputtered. Optimus gave him a look. Ironhide sputtered again. Optimus gave him another look. Ironhide growled and stormed past the team, into the BUS to apologize. Following the heat trail, he found her bunk, which she was sitting on her bed, typing away on her computer, music in her ears.

Ironhide knocked on the door, not that she noticed, the music blaring too loudly. Ratchet would have gone into an hour long lecture about how the volume was harmful to her fragile ears.

"If you are going to say something, say it," she said, looking up from her screen. She muted the music, giving him her full attention. It was odd. Most humans, when they met him, would cower, not meet his eyes, or they would treat him as though he was just a robot.

"I have come to apologize for insulting your hacking skills," he said, clearly unhappy with his orders.

"Okay, so apologize," she said, a small grin on her face.

"I just did," he protested.

"No, you said that is what you were here to do. You never actually apologized," she argued, looking back at her computer and rolling her eyes. "I have amateurs trying to out-hack me. This is really insulting," she said.

"Your government seems to think that they are some of the best hackers in the world and you are calling them amateurs," he said.

"Most hackers tend to stay away from the government. We don't tend to mix very well. Normally, hackers that are employed by the government are really bad at hacking. It's just them using a system that is inside the computer," she explained. "How can they expect a computer to stop someone that can actually think for themselves and adapt how they are hacking into a system?"

Ironhide tilted his head to the side, studying her. "How would you keep someone from hacking you?"

"Easy! I have an alarm for if someone is trying to hack me. Instead of putting up more and more firewalls and stuff, I'd hack them, put them on the defensive so they are more worried about putting up more and more firewalls to stop me, giving me time to transfer everything onto a flashdrive, then wipe my system. They wouldn't find anything on my computer," she said, sounding very proud of herself. Ironhide was slightly impressed.

"I apologize for insulting your hacking skills. It appears that you are more competent at it than I first gave you credit for," Ironhide said sincerely. "Now please stop hacking into the NEST database."

Skye gave him a wide smile and lifted her hands off the keyboard. "Alright. Twenty more seconds and I would have had it, but..." Ironhide looked over her shoulder. She was right. She was almost all the way through.

"I think it would have taken thirty more seconds," he challenged. She grinned and began hacking away again. nineteen seconds later, she had successfully hacked her way into the NEST database.

"Ha," she said before shutting the laptop down. "Told you."

"You did tell me. Please do not inform anyone that I... encouraged you to finish hacking..." he said. He sounded almost sheepish.

"Don't worry, big guy. I think that I would get in more trouble than you," Skye assured.

"Thank you, Agent Skye," he said.

"It's Skye," she corrected with a smile before skipping out of the BUS. Ironhide blinked out of existence and reappeared next to his alt-form. She waved when she saw him, and he nodded to her.

"Skye, no more hacking the NEST base, and please, for the sake of my sanity, no hacking the Cybertronians, Skye," Coulson ordered.

"No promises, AC!" She said brightly.

"Skye! You have got to see the base!" Jemma insisted.

"They have a lab here, and it's-" Fitz began, just as animated as Simmons.

"-brilliant! It's better than anything that we-" Jemma continued for Fitz.

"-have at SHIELD! Their technology is so much-" Fitz continued as Simmons went to take a breath.

"-more advanced than anything even Stark could come up with! They-" Simmons said.

"-are so amazing!" they finished together.

Muffled laughter was coming from somewhere to the side of them. Lennox stepped out, chuckling.

"Do they do that often?" he finally asked.

"Do what?" Fitzsimmons asked.

"That, the whole... sharing a wavelength-thingy," Lennox amended.

"It is impossible for such an event to occur, though the very notion is fascinating!" Jemma said.

"I do believe that he was referring to our habit of finishing each other sentences and speaking at the same time, Jem," Fitz explained.

"Oh, yes, we do tend to do that a lot, don't we?" Simmons said.

Skye interrupted before they got into the science babble. "Yes, they do it all the time. That's why we call them Fitzsimmons instead of Fitz and Simmons. You can't have one without the other," she looked at them wistfully.

"They're just a couple of kids," he commented.

"Older than me. Jemma only by a month, Fitz by two. But, they grew up sheltered, always have their heads stuck in the clouds, thinking about science stuff," Skye said. Lennox nodded.

"So, you gonna tell me the story of how this all started, or am I going to have to ask around?" she asked after a long pause.

Lennox laughed and told her the story of how it had all come together, and of how, since the first meeting a year ago, they had been doing their best to get the government to see them as more than emotionless robots or weapons. In turn, Skye gave him the story of how they had kidnapped her from her van and everything that happened after that. She was crying again when she got to the point of Ward's betrayal, but Lennox didn't comment. She had left out a lot of details, like her being shot, the wonder drug, her 0-8-4 statis, and why she had joined SHIELD.

She knew that he knew she was holding back information, but he didn't press her.

"Oi, what did you do to Skye?" Fitz asked, noticing her tears. Skye snorted a laugh at his tone. After about five seconds, she collapsed into a laughing fit on the ground, tears of laughter now streaming down her face.

"Sorry, sorry, Fitz! I'm fine, but your face! You looked like you were about to kill him!" she said through her laughter.

Fitz drew himself to his full height indignantly. "Don't be ridiculous, Skye! I would have simply shot him

with an ICER," he said.

Whatever an ICER was, the thought of Fitz using one to shoot Lennox sent Skye back into her laughing fit. Lennox decided that he really didn't want to know.

"Do you want to meet the actual Autobots? Not the holoforms, their actual forms?" he asked once Skye was able to stand again. He was met with three eager yeses, four once Agent Triplett joined. He stood behind them like a guard dog, hovering in the background.

They were led by Lennox to the Autobot hanger, where all of the bots except for Optimus, who was with Coulson and May, were gathered in alt-form. They were all just relaxing, Ironhide was cleaning his cannons, Ratchet was repairing a bot that they had not met, said bot was complaining about his paintjob. Next to him was a silver version of himself. The silver one was laughing.

"Hey! Lennox brought new squishies!" the gold one said, pushing Ratchet away to stand. Fitzsimmons looked at them in awe, especially Fitz, finding them completely fascinating. Triplett looked like he was about to start shooting at the slightest hint of violence. Sky looked at the gold one, her face surprisingly blank.

"What did you just call us?" she asked quietly. She crossed her arms and glared at the gold bot.

"Squishy. 'Cause you're squishy and soft," Gold explained.

"I see. And you are?" she asked.

"Sunstreaker, frontliner for the Autobots," he said proudly.

"Sunstreaker, then. Did you know that you sound like an arrogant ass when you call us squishies. We already KNOW that we go "squish" easily, we don't need the reminder," Skye said before smiling brightly, "I'm Skye, by the way, nice to meet you!"

"You are not scared of us?" Ratchet asked, cutting off Sunstreaker's angry retort.

"Terrified, but I get the feeling you guys won't intentionally hurt us, so there isn't any reason for me to act on my fears," Skye said sagely.

"You are very wise for one so young," Ratchet informed her. "Are you..." he paused, as though searching for something, "alright? Your emotional levels are not balanced. Has something upset you recently?"

Skye looked up at him for a moment before sending Lennox a confused glance.

"He's the medic, he worries about our health a little too much," was all that Lennox would say.

"Oh, um, yeah, no, I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me," Skye assured the medic. She didn't think that he believed her for a second, but he didn't press the matter.

"So, what do you guys do for fun around here? I'm bored," Skye declared, changing the subject once more.

Lennox looked at her incredulously. "This is a military base. We don't have "fun"."

Skye looked at him sadly, "I feel so sorry for you. You are a terrible liar," she said before cracking up. Lennox groaned and fished out a twenty from his wallet and passed it over to Sergeant Epps, who whooped and snatched it away.

"Thanks girl, you won me a bet!" he told her, hugging her. Lennox chuckled as well. "As for what we do for fun…. Do you want to help us with a couple of pranks?"

Skye grinned. "Sure, but we have to bring Fitzsimmons along. They're geniuses," she said, grabbing the two young scientists and dragging them away with them.

"Skye, perhaps we shouldn't-" Simmons began.

"We mean, we don't know them-" Fitz added.

"What if they get terribly upset with us?" Simmons said.

"Yes, we don't even know them!" Fitz declared.

"Guys, relax! It's just a little fun, not harming anyone. Just loosen up. I thought that you guys loved pranks!" Skye coaxed.

"We do!" Simmons defended.

"Then I don't see the problem."

"But what about Director Coulson? Won't he be a might upset if he finds out that we were pranking people on this base?" Fitz said, still unsure.

Skye took pause for a moment. "Then he can't find out it was us!" she finally declared cheerfully, still dragging the scientists along for the ride. "So, who are we pranking?"

"The Autobots," Lennox said. Skye grinned a grin that had Fitzsimmons wishing they were in a secure bunker far away from her.


	2. Pranking Sunstreaker

The actual setting up of the prank didn't take very much time, not with Fitz being an engineer and knowing exactly where things needed to be set up. Skye did all of the programming, Simmons told her when she needed to alter something so that it would work. Lennox and Epps kept guard, though they allowed Triplett to join in their prank, spying out the other hallways as extra protection for them.

"That's the last thing. Now all we have to is wait for them to fall for it," Skye declared happily, closing her laptop. They got up and dashed out of the room, knowing that they would get caught if they didn't.

The resulting bang five minutes later caused them to begin laughing almost uncontrollably. Skye almost dropped her computer she was laughing so hard.

They stopped laughing really fast when they turned to see an unhappy Agent May and Director Coulson and an equally disapproved Optimus Prime. The effect of stern superiors was ruined when a politician practically stormed through the doors, fuming.

"WHAT IS GOING ON? I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A VERY IMPORTANT PHONE CALL!" the man snarled. The SHIELD agents immediately disliked him.

"I apologize. It appears that my agents decided to relax by setting up a prank on some of the Autobots. They also seemed to have dragged some of the NEST soldiers into their troublemaking. I'll be speaking with them soon," Coulson said, his emotions a pleasant mask of diplomacy.

"Who are YOU anyway. I didn't approve of any visits from any other US agencies!" the unpleasant man sneered.

"That would be because we aren't a US agency. We're a WORLD agency, and we do not have to ask permission from YOU to come here," Skye snapped, coming to the aid of Coulson.

"Skye," Coulson warned. "You're in enough trouble as it is. Try not to make it worse."

"Yeah, yeah. I have troubles with politicians in lousy suits," she grumbled.

"You have problems with authority in general, girl," Triplett teased her quietly.

"I asked you who you were, tell me now or-" the man began to threaten.

"I assure you, Mr. Gallaway, we aren't here to cause trouble. I am Director Phil Coulson of SHIELD. Just visiting to see how this agency is being run. I wanted to ensure that it wasn't going to be another Sector Seven fiasco."

Galloway sputtered, not quite sure what he should say to that. "Keep your agents controlled, especially that BRAT over there," he finally sneered.

"I'm going to ask you to take that back. That supposed brat is one of, and maybe the best hacker in the world, and also one of our most promising agents."

Surprisingly enough, it was May who had said it. That was enough to shock everyone into silence.

Not having anything to say, Galloway stormed back out. Even he wasn't stupid enough to go against May. That said and done, Coulson turned back to his agents.

"Why did you pull a prank on Sunstreaker, Agent Simmons?" he asked, going for the most honest of his agents.

"Well, he was a might bit rude to us, and well, I didn't really want to, but Skye dragged us along…. Was he hurt?" Simmons asked.

"No, no one was hurt. He just was rather embarrassed at suddenly doing the chicken dance and not knowing why," Coulson said, the faintest trace of a smile on his face. "I wonder who could have done that, Skye."

"I KNOW AC. I have no idea who would have done that to him? Maybe they thought he needed a gentle lesson to respect us squishies?" Skye said, her eyes wide and innocent.

"I didn't realize it was their job to do so. Maybe they should have come to one of their superiors," Coulson said, raising an eyebrow.

"MAYBE they had urgings to do the prank from someone on the inside…." Skye finally said. Coulson gave his knowing smile and shook his head.

"If you can't behave like adults, we'll leave now," he warned.

"But sir! You can't-"

"-possibly be serious! The amount-"

"-of things we can learn here-"

"-they have a state of the art lab-"

"-with some of the greatest-"

"-scientists in the world working-"

"-here! To leave now-"

"-it would be like-

"-going to Disney Land-"

"-then turning around at the gates!" Fitzsimmons protested.

"Yeah, AC! It'd be like going to Disney and not even going through the gates!" Skye summarized.

"With all due respect, sir, it would be rather depressing if we left right now," Triplett added, his Southern twang leaking through his voice thickly.

Coulson studied them for a second. "I think that we'll be leaving, but we may come back. I believe that they may have set up another prank," Coulson explained when they looked at him, crestfallen. "And I expect you all to disable the pranks before we leave."

The agents and soldiers slunk out of the room, grumbling, when Coulson spoke up again. "And Skye?"

"Yes, AC?" Skye grumbled.

"No hacking the Cybertronians."

"...Fine."

Fifteen minutes later, they were back on the BUS, though none of the young agents were happy about it.

"Again, I apologize for my team's childishness and for the trouble they caused," Coulson said before they boarded the plane.

"You would be surprised how often I say that myself," Optimus said.

"Thank you for letting us come, it was nice to meet you all," Coulson said as he finally boarded the plane.

"Wheels up in five. Skye, you're grounded, hand over your laptop to me," Agent May's voice called over the intercom.

"NOO!" Skye's voice could be heard shouting from her room.

The plane took off, the last glimpse that anyone saw of the inside was the bizarre scene of Skye holding a gun at May while clutching her precious laptop close to her chest.


	3. NOT MY LAPTOP!

**Remember the warning that I gave in the first chapter about it taking a turn from being fluffy, and if I didn't, please tell me so I can add it in, yeah, this is the start of that... Anywho, enjoy! :P**

**Love, Wolfy**

* * *

Five Hours Later:

"Skye, just give me the laptop, now," Triplett tried. May had been forced to go back to fly the plane manually when they had flown into a storm.

"No!" Skye said, hugging it closer and climbing up higher. She had somehow climbed up a pole to one of the metal supports that could barely be seen on the ceiling.

"Girl, you'll get it back!" Triplett said, climbing cautiously up after her. Skye levelled the ICER at him in warning. Unfortunately, it caused her grip to falter and began to tilt downward. Her need to to keep her laptop was outdone by the instinct to stop her fall. Her laptop fell towards the ground as Skye managed to grab onto another rafter and hang from it.

"Shit! Trip, I'm stuck!" Skye cried out, eyes closed tightly as she hung on for her life.

"Hang on, Skye. Can ya pull yourself up?" Trip asked.

"No!" Skye cried out. Her arms were tired from hanging onto the rafters in the first place. No way could she pull herself up now. She felt her hands slipping and she squinted open her eyes, looking around carefully. Hesitantly she swung her arm with the lesser grip over towards the next rafter, missing it the first time, then catching it just barely the second time. Taking a deep breath, she let go, hoping she wouldn't fall. It was a very long way down.

"Trip, I...I think I can swing myself over back to the pole and slide down…" she said.

"Skye, be careful, some of the beams were-" Trip began, getting cut off as he rushed to catch Skye as the beam she had just swung onto collapsed. Trip managed to soften her fall, stalling her, but he stumbled and they both hit the ground hard.

"Thanks for catching me, Trip," Skye groaned. Crawling off of his groaning body, she searched the ground for her laptop. Other than a dent, it was perfectly okay. Sighing, and feeling bad that she had caused Triplett pain, she handed it over.

"Jeez, if I had known that all it took for me to get your laptop was to catch you, I would have you fall hours ago!" Triplett groaned, taking it. "Huh, ya would think that it would be more banged up than that…." he said, examining it.

"I know! But, anyways, Coulson said that I had to go to his office after you got it…" she grumbled, limping up the stairs. When she got to the office, she tensed up, feeling like a little kid going to the principal's office.

"Skye, I can hear you out here. Come on in," Coulson ordered. Skye walked in, looking around the office nervously. "Skye, do you know what Optimus Prime said after you pulled that prank?"

She looked at him incredulously, "Um, no? How could I? I was undoing all of my hard work."

"He said that he had never seen a human with your skills in computers. He complimented you after you caused a lot of trouble. I, however, will not. They are living beings. To hack into them like that is taking away their free will, and as such, you become an enemy. As punishment, you have to put the bracelet back on for a little while," Coulson told her gravely.

"What?" Skye asked, looking at him, betrayed.

"Think of it as being grounded. I can't just take away your computer, because you'll just find something else to hack on, and I can't forbid you to hack because you'll just disobey me. It's not the same bracelet as before. You can still go on your laptop and on other devices. You just can't hack."

"What about when I need to decrypt my laptop?" she demanded.

Coulson just took out the box that held the bracelet and held out his hand. She allowed him to grab her arm and slide the thin silver band onto her wrist.

"I haven't been grounded before. Not really," she said wistfully. Coulson almost broke right there. Of course she hadn't. SHIELD would always move her around before anything like that could happen.

"Well, I hope you don't make a habit of it. We do need our computer specialist. Now go and annoy May," Coulson said seriously. Skye grinned and hugged him before racing out. He smiled after her. At least she was smiling again. It was a good start.

He thought back to the conversation he had had with Optimus Prime after the prank had occurred.

* * *

"_She truly hacked into Sunstreaker?" the Prime asked, his tone thoughtful._

"_She's that good. Never seen anyone like it. It's like she can see exactly what codes she needs to put in, or remove," Phil said. Maybe it was true. She was an 0-8-4 after all._

"_I have never seen a human skilled enough in computers to be able to hack through the intricate firewalls that surround our processors. It was a very good prank for a human. Even more so for one so young."_

"_She's something special. She's been through a lot in that short amount of time. Most of our top agents haven't been through what she has," Coulson said sadly._

"_If she died, would you mourn?"" Prime asked._

"_That's a strange question to ask someone," Coulson evaded._

"_Maybe, but humor me with an answer," Optimus said. _

"_I'm the Director of an Agency with hundreds of agents under my command. If she died, every single one of those agents would be tasked with finding her killer. Same for anyone on my team. They are the only people I know I can trust, and if they die under my orders, it's my fault," Coulson said._

"_I see. The reason I asked is because many of you humans seem to not care for those under your command. I needed to ensure that you were different," Optimus said._

"_Understandable. I had an agent as part of my team, our specialist. It turned out that he was one on the other team. Skye took it pretty hard, he was her S.O." he explained. "Hasn't smiled in weeks."_

"_I assume that she is still going to be reprimanded for pulling that prank?"_

"_Yes. Hacking away someone's free will is not something I condone," Coulson assured._

"_I am glad that we see eye to eye on that point, Director Coulson," Prime said._

_Coulson smiled and his team arrived, signifying the the time for them to go._

* * *

Skye glared at her computer, wishing she could hack. Instead, she checked her email.

**CoolHacker125: **Hey Skye, how did you enjoy your visit?

**HacktheTruth: **Hey Glenn, yeah, it was fun, but I got grounded. No hacking.

**CoolHacker125: **Bummer. No hacking, huh? Pity, it was a really good prank.

**HackheTruth: **I didn't mean to cause so much trouble, it was just supposed to be a little fun. We took it way too far.

**CoolHacker125: **I don't know, I mean, he's had it coming to him, he's always pranking us, after all.

**HacktheTruth: **Just because he's childish doesn't mean that we can stoop to his level, and especially not use him like he was some silly little computer. He's a little being.

**CoolHacker125: **Hang on, can I give him your email? He's been ordered to apologize to you.

**HacktheTruth: **Yeah, I need to apologize as well.

**CoolHacker125: **KK, I'll talk to you later. Have to get back to work!

Skye rolled her eyes and clicked on the new email.

**Sunstreaker: **I apologize for being rude to you and your team. I will be more careful with who I insult in the future.

**HacktheTruth:** I'm sorry for taking the prank so far. It was uncalled for and I won't do it again.

**Sunstreaker: **Why is your username not your true name?

**HacktheTruth: **Because I don't want people who I anonymously email to know my name.

**Sunstreaker: **I see. Why do you anonymously email people?

**HacktheTruth: **I don't anymore, it was before I was taken in by SHIELD, when I made a living exploiting government secrets. That sounds really bad, now that I've typed that out… What job did you have before your war started.

**Sunstreaker: **I was an artist, along with my twin, Sideswipe.

**HacktheTruth: **I have to go. Training. Maybe I'll see you guys again soon!

* * *

Skye closed her laptop and sighed, glaring at her ceiling again. Not that she had anything against Trip, but it felt wrong to her. It should be Ward teaching her. It should have been Ward scolding her for pulling that prank. It should have been Ward that took down Garrett. Not betray them, betray her. She got out of her bunk and trudged down to the training area, her smiles and good mood long gone.

A year and a half later, it was still like that her depression coming in waves, sometimes she was happy, sometimes she was contemplating just disappearing off the face of the earth.

"Ah, come on, girl! You can do better than that! That wouldn't knock over a puppy," Trip teased, trying to get to show some kind of emotion, something to show that she actually cared about what she was doing.

"Of course it wouldn't, I would never hit a puppy," Skye scoffed, Trip's tactic working for once.

"Maybe you should go down to talk to him. It's only another week before he's free to move around the BUS and to go on missions again," Trip reminded her.

"Why is he getting off easy, again?" Skye asked harshly.

"Because he owed Garrett a life debt. A lot of people's lives have been saved because an agent had a life-debt, and a lot of bad decisions. He's getting the same punishment as anyone else who did what he did because they were misinformed about their choices," Trip explain, again.

"Why don't you go talk to him, then?" Skye asked, now positively beating the crap out of the punching bag.

"I already have, along with everyone except you," Trip said impatiently.

"Then maybe I don't want to talk to him!" Skye shouted. "Okay, I don't want to talk to him, ever again!" Okay, maybe that sounded childish, but she couldn't deal with everyone pitying her, trying to help her. She was tempted to leave. Actually, that was a good idea. "I'm taking the day off tomorrow. Don't try following me," she said before angrily pulling away at the tape and stalking out of the room.

* * *

Still two days later, Skye was gone, no trace of her to be found in the surrounding area.

"I want her back on the BUS. She is still under observation from the drug we gave her!" Simmons exclaimed.

"She's supposed to be grounded, as in stuck on the BUS, not running off without telling us!" Fitz added.

"Just find her already!" Coulson interrupted.


	4. Kidnapped

Skye groaned and looked up blearily. She had left at exactly midnight, wanting to be away from the BUS for as long as she possibly could. But things hadn't gone as plan. Someone must have been watching the plane, because not even five minutes after she had left had passed before she found herself being attacked by five men dressed in black.

The ceiling above was cement and full of cracks, the occasional drip of water telling her that it was the most hygienic of places. And it was dim. A single bare bulb was all the light given to the empty room she was in. She was tight to a wooden chair, unable to move.

The door opened and a man waltzed in like he owned the place. Actually, seeing who it was, he probably did.

"Hello, Skye. So nice to see you aren't dead. That would put a big damper on my plans for you," he said. He waved with a casted over arm.

"Wow, cliche much? Cut to the chase, Quinn, what do you want?" Skye snapped.

"A little flower told me something very interesting about your past. About how a whole village of people died protecting you. And I'm going to find out why."

"Uh huh. How are you supposed to do that when you can't even use your arms properly?" Skye scoffed.

"Oh, yes. Agent Ward did this to me when I suggested we take you to be studied. Very protective he is of you," Ian Quinn said.

"Uh huh. And Ironman is actually just a hologram made by Tony Stark," Skye said sarcastically.

Quinn eyed her for a moment before hitting a button that had been hidden in his suit jacket. "I'm so glad that you're willing for us to begin!"

Skye didn't know for how long the first session of testing lasted, but at the end of it, she was in pain. A lot of it. And there was only worse to come.

Coulson and his team, including Ward now, were hitting dead ends everywhere. They needed to be able to hack into things, but all of the SHIELD hackers weren't at the same level as Skye was and couldn't get past the things Skye easily bypassed. Three months of searching, and if they didn't come up with a solution quickly, they might not ever be able to find her.

"Sir, what about her friend in NEST, the hacker, Glenn, wasn't it? Maybe he could help. He did say that Skye taught him everything he knows," Trip said.

Coulson was quiet for a moment, not sure. Finally, he made up his mind. "Looks like we're going to the NEST base to pick up a hacker."

Upon their arrival, they were swarmed by questions. How were they, who was the unknown agent, but most of all, they were asking where Skye was.

"We need to speak to Glenn," Ward finally said over the racket of the questions.

"Here! Where's Skye? I haven't heard from her in a while?" Glenn asked, looking worried.

"That's why we need you. Skye went missing three months ago and all of our hackers are hitting dead ends and encryptions that they can't break through. You said that Skye taught you all that you know about hacking. Could you use your skills to help us find her?" Coulson asked, dead serious.

"Um, yeah, o-of course!" Glenn said, flustered. "Get outta my way, I need ta get to my computer!" he ordered, pushing past people.

Glenn began hacking security cameras, cell phones, websites, anything that could lead them to Skye. It was two days before he found what they were looking for. "Coulson! There's a distress signal coming from a SHIELD issued security bracelet registered to Skye! It's faint, like it's underground, but it's there!"

"Where is it?" Ironhide asked, the Autobots having only just heard about SHIELD being there, much to their collective outrage at not being told. Now they were gathered with the SHIELD team in holoform.

Glenn jumped about a foot in the air and spun to face him. "Holy shit, when did you get here?"

"2.597 seconds ago."

"Oh, well, it looks like she's… oh, god, she's at the Hoover Dam, at the old Sec. Seven base! Hacking into the security cameras now," Glenn said, fingers flying over the keyboard. "Got it! Oh man, this looks bad…"

Skye was tied to the same chair, her hair limp, tangled, and dirtied. Her clothes were torn, shredded, and they could see blood staining it. There were also many tubes feeding into her body, the only thing keeping her alive. A scientist came in and the formerly limp form shot up and faced them.

"Now, are you going to behave and make this easy?" the scientist asked, as though they were speaking to a small child.

"Go rot in hell. I'll never make it easy for you. Not as long as I'm living," Skye snarled, spitting bloody saliva at his feet.

"Keep this up and I'll get Mr. Quinn to authorize your termination," the scientist snarled.

"Aw, but don't you like spending time with me?" Skye asked innocently.

"You nearly choked me to death last time!"

"Serves you right, you sick bastard," Skye said. The scientist scowled and backhanded her, making her cry out in pain. He then proceeded to do a series of what looked like excruciating tests on her, all the while, Skye struggled.

"You're never getting out of here, just accept that and everything will be easier for you," the scientist spat before he walked out of her cell.

"You're wrong. AC and May and Fitzsimmons and Trip and even Ward by now are all looking for me. If not for me then for the fancy bracelet," Skye shouted after them, though it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than the scientist. "They have to be looking," she said before sobbing.

"That's it, I can't watch anymore!" Glenn said, turning away from his screen, tears in his own eyes.

"That's okay. We're going to get her out. Now," Coulson declared gesturing for his team to board the plane.

"Excuse me, Director Coulson, but would you allow our holoforms to assist you? The base is very large and we will find her faster if there are more people looking at a time," Optimus asked. Not that he would listen if Coulson said no.

"We'll accept all the help that we could get, but instead of individual, we should work in pairs. We won't cover as much ground that way, but two sets of eyes are better than one," Coulson agreed. In no time at all, it seemed, they were entering the Dam. One of the holoforms, the one the team had been introduced to as Bumblebee, shuddered as he and Ward, the one he had gotten paired up with, walked into it.

"What's the matter?" Ward asked.

"I… was….. tortured… here…. once…. as….. well," he said, piecing together the words from various movies, TV shows, and songs.

"Oh. Sector Seven? They had been on SHIELD's radar to take down for years, but every time we tried to, they would hide all the evidence of what they were doing. Tricky bastards," Ward said, as he checked another room. No Skye.

Skye heard movement outside her cell door and shot up defiantly. She didn't have much strength left, but she wasn't going to give anyone the satisfaction of watching her die broken. Yes, she was dying, in what she thought was the cruelest, slowest ways possible. She was handcuffed to metal poles, her arms high above her head as and her legs shackled to the ground. Volts of electricity were pulsing through the poles to the metal handcuffs, and then into her. Every five minutes, it would halt, giving her a cruel reprieve from her death. They really wanted to drag this out.

The scientist, Dr. Telno, entered, a smug smile being wiped off his face as he saw her ever defiant expression. "You'll be dead soon, so smile for the camera, we'll be giving you precious heroes a last look at you," he sneered.

Skye looked defiantly at the camera, glaring at it, as if daring it to feel sorry for her. Then she saw a familiar face, and her face twisted into a humorless smile.

"I hate to say it, but I don't plan on dying today. Not at your hands," Skye said, louder than she was normally able. Ward and guy he was with backpedalled, looking into the formerly unseen room. "Hey, Ward," she said, a half real smile on her face.

Her five minutes were up and the bars lit up with electricity, making her body contort painfully, her muscles no longer under her control.

"SKYE!" she heard a voice shout, and a lot of loud bangs, like someone was being beaten. She would know what that sounded like by now. The electricity suddenly cut off, leaving her limp and regaining her wisps of strength to look up once more. Her arms were released and she fell forward, someone catching her. It was so hard to open her eyes, though she wanted to, so so badly. Her legs were freed as well and she could feel a body holding hers. Ward. Ward and his friend had saved her.

"Ward…" she murmured. "Thank you…"

She slipped into sweet oblivion, despite Ward's protests, away from the torturous world that she had lived in for months.

"SIR! WE FOUND HER!" Ward shouted as he raced over to his superior. Coulson looked at her and his breath caught. She looked almost- "She's alive," Ward added.

Ratchet and Simmons leapt into action, taking Skye from Ward and getting her stable enough for flight, and then guarded her from all the agents that tried to swarm her when they saw her.

Two weeks later, Skye was doing better, but she was still in a coma. None of the team had left her side other than to use the bathroom, shower, or eat. It was about three am, when everyone was dozing, when Skye woke up.

"Hey AC. Aren't visiting hours over?" she asked, waking up everyone.

"Skye! You're awake! We were so worried!" Simmons said as she carefully hugged her.

"Yeah, takes more than that to take me down. Don't you worry your genius mind about me. How long was I… taking a vacation?"

"Three months, Skye. And you've been in a coma for two weeks. You are not fine," a voice said from the doorway.

Skye jumped, flinching away from the new person. Her heart rate escalated and her doe-like eyes filled with terror before she recognized who he was. "Oh, hi Ratchet. Long time no see!" She said it with a forced smile, not liking how everyone had jolted to attention when the monitors went off. "Relax, guys, I guess I'm just a bit jumpy right now. I'll be fine in a couple of days, right?" she said, asking Simmons.

"No! Your body is extremely weak, you lost over half of your weight while you were there, not to mention the multiple broken and fractured bones, the burns, plus we need to keep you under observation to ensure that the electric currents didn't cause any brain damage!" Simmons practically screamed. Skye flinched away from her, though no fear indicators alerted.

"Simmons, head is still groggy. No yelling at me until tomorrow," she said. Skye yawned, her eyes closing of their own accord. "And Ward, when I get out of here, we're going to have words."

"Sure thing, Rookie," Ward agreed as soon as she said it. Skye grumbled in her sleep, causing a light chuckle around the room.

"Now everyone get out," Ratchet growled. Fitzsimmons were only too happy to. Ratchet sounded pissed about something. Trip and Ward stared at him incredulously, not planning on listening. Until a silver wrench appeared in the holoform's hand, ready to be used as a motivator. They had seen Ratchet, not the holoform, use his wrenches on the Autobots before and it hadn't been pretty. They got out of there almost as quickly as Fitzsimmons.

May just looked at him, clearly unimpressed. "You have got to be kidding me," she growled, looking more menacing than Ratchet.

"Out," he responded. Still glaring, she left, but Coulson hadn't moved from gently stroking Skye's hair. She relaxed into his hand, the soothing contact drastically different than the kind that she had had to go through back at the Dam. Good thing for Coulson, Ratchet didn't seem intent on making him leave.

"Is she always this way? Pretending she is fine so as not to worry others?"

"For as long as I've known her. Maybe she wasn't when she was younger. Maybe a learned trait," Coulson mused. Even if Ratchet was her doctor, he didn't feel comfortable with sharing about Skye.

"Is there any way I could get in contact with her parents? In order to get a detailed family history and to know if she is allergic to anything?" Ratchet asked.

"She doesn't have any," Coulson said, looking up at him, pausing his hand on Skye's hair.

Ratchet was confused, and the confusion was clearly shown on his face. "Did you have orphans where you come from?" Coulson asked. Ratchet nodded slowly.

"Yes, but they had caretakers… adopted parents," Ratchet said, explaining it in the best human terms he could.

"All of them?" Coulson asked. Ratchet nodded again. "Must have been a nice place to live. She's been moved around from foster home to orphanage to the streets, never staying in one place for long. When we took her in, she thought that it was because she wasn't a good fit, that something was wrong with her. Turned out, SHIELD was the one moving her around, keeping her safe from anyone looking for her…." Coulson said, moving his hand over Skye's head again.

Ratchet looked outraged. "Who would want to do harm to a mere sparkling, child in your terms?"

"We don't know. Some SHIELD agents found her in China, the village she was in was destroyed, everyone dead except her. A few of the villagers managed to take blurry pictures of humanoid figures attacking the village, trying to get to her. The agents got her out, but all but two were killed in China by those same….. monsters. We found out that they might be her parents, but the agents didn't know that. The agents got the girl back, planning to go into hiding and raise her like she was their own. But the monsters found them. One of the agents, Agent Avery, put in place a nearly invisible protocol and put Skye on the doorstep of St. Agnes Orphanage. Skye was to be moved around every couple of months, until she was so lost in the system no one in SHIELD or those monsters could ever find her again. That didn't work out so well, because she became a hacker and hacked into our databases, searching for her past. We grabbed her and she became an asset, then a recruit, and now she's an agent. That's all that we really know about her," Coulson said. Of course, he didn't mention her 0-8-4 status

"Are you sure that those supposed monsters were trying to harm her?" Ratchet asked.

"No, I'm not, why?" Coulson asked.

"Because her blood is not human. I do not know what she is," Ratchet revealed. Coulson only nodded and continued stroking her hair, telling Ratchet that Coulson didn't really care. "Your agency in notorious for locking up humans who are not humans," Ratchet prompted. Coulson nodded again.

"I know. But I'll protect her. It is within my rights to, now," Coulson said. "To protect the people who would normally be locked up and hidden away from society, even though they mean no harm."

"You view her as you would your own," Ratchet said, making an observation.

"Before her, we were a team. Now we're a family. If we lose her, we lose our family. We go back to being members on a team who are fighting for a similar cause," Phil said. 'We almost lost our family when she went missing,' he thought to himself. "What about your team? Do you have anyone that, were they to die…" Coulson trailed off at the end.

"We have been at war for thousands of years. If not for our youngest, many of us would have quit centuries ago, and the All Spark would be in the servos of Megatron. Bumblebee inspires loyalty in our troops and reminds us why we are fighting. He is our Skye, as you humans would say," Ratchet said. Coulson nodded.

"So why is it that you kicked everyone out?"

"Skye showed no signs of distress upon wakening, showing that she had no fear of any of you. However, when I walked in, and when Agent Simmons raised her voice, she not only flinched, she also set off the monitors. I believe she may have what you humans call PTSD, where certain things will trigger flash-"

Coulson cut him off. "She had PTSD before. She was shot twice in the abdomen and died briefly before we saved her. She has nightmares, she'll flinch from loud noises, surprisingly not gunfire, though. She's strong, and stubborn, which has both helped and harmed her," Coulson said. Unbeknownst to them, Skye had just woken up and she was listening to them talk.

They continued to do so, Ratchet's analytical voice reminding her of St. Anges' nurse, who was always rational and serious when around adults, but was sympathetic and normally cross with her when Skye had to go there after pulling a stupid stunt. It was soothing, even though she was still reeling from being out of that hell she had been in.

Coulson's voice was even more soothing, her father figure just being there, that her team had cared about her enough to get her out of their, was touching. Finally having enough of just listening, she opened her eyes.

"Hey AC. Did anyone get hurt getting me out of there?" she asked, a small smile on her face.

"Only you," Coulson said, smiling back at her.

"Oh, really? That's like, never happened before." Skye shifted around, uncomfortable. "Can I get up and move around? I haven't really been able to in a couple months…." Skye said, not liking remembering her torture.

Ratchet answered instead of Coulson. "If you can get up by yourself and walk without help, you can walk around the base."

Skye looked at all the machines hooked into her, and at her leg, suspended in the air. "Um, I'm guessing that I'm not allowed to unhook anything?"

Ratchet grinned at her. "Smart girl," he said. Skye huffed, wincing as it jostled her body more than she would have liked. "As much as I am sure Director Coulson would love to stay, he needs sleep himself, as well as to assure your team that I did not diagnose you fatally. I also need to leave, it appears that you will have a roommate for a while," Ratchet added.

"What happened?" Skye asked eagerly.

"It appears that Wheeljack blew up something again and one of the humans under our protection was caught in the blast. Probably has a concussion, and that would be mild," Ratchet huffed, escorting Coulson to the door and locking it so no one could enter, before disappearing.

Fifteen minutes later, two people were dragged in by a fuming Ratchet. Skye jumped, a small yelp escaping her as she did. That brought her presence to attention to the three of them.

"What happened that entails you dragging them into here?" She asked hesitantly.

"Who's she?" one of the people asked. He looked like he was only a kid! Ratchet thumped him on the back of the head angrily. Not enough to actually harm, but enough to make him yelp sheepishly.

"Hey Skye!" the other said. It was Lennox. Skye grinned as he, too, received a hit from the furious medic.

"Hey Lennox. What did you do?"

"Nothing much…. Might have almost blew up the kid….." he said, grinning.

"I thought that was Wheeljack?"

"Uh, well, it was, but I sort of am the one that distracted him. Sam took most of the blast, but I got hit, too," Lennox said after Ratchet glared at him expectantly.

"Really? Awesome! I would have paid to see Ratchet dragging you two out of there!" Skye crowed, mixing laughter with yelps of pain at the thought of it.

"I don't see why you're mad at me, Ratchet," Sam grumbled.

"Yeah, Ratchet, why are you mad at the kid?" Skye asked curiously.

"Because Samuel was is forbidden to be around Wheeljack unless Bumblebee or Ironhide is with him," Ratchet growled.

"Wait wait wait, you're The Sam Witwicky? Cool! I'm Skye. I would shake your hand, but, well, I'm having a little mobility troubles at the moment," Skye said, grinning happily. Sam smiled back hesitantly, making Skye deduce that he didn't like being the center of attention all the time.

"Uh, yeah. You're Skye, Glenn's friend?" he asked.

Skye grinned at him in affirmation. Ratchet huffed and dragged him to a bed and began tending to his wounds. "Wait, who's Bumblebee?" she asked after a moment.

"He is our scout. He is also Sam's guardian. Bumblebee was with Sam the first time you came here. His holoform was with Agent Ward when you were rescued. He knocked out the scientist while Agent Ward freed you," Ratchet informed her, his tone carefully monotonous.

"Oh, cool, Can you tell him thanks from me?" Skye said, her expression tightening slightly as she spoke.

"How can you smile after what they did to you?" Sam asked, scooting closer. Skye looked at him consideringly.

"I was a foster kid, not all the families were the nicest. I don't like bullies, started a lot of fights, got my butt kicked a lot, drove the nurse at orphanage crazy with how often I was in there. Then I lived on the streets for a while. Then I joined Rising Tide, then SHIELD. I got shot twice by the same guy who captured me, and I died for a couple seconds. If I can smile after all of that, I can definitely smile after what just happened to me."

Sam stared at her in amazement, and that was the vague version. Ratchet shook his head in disgust. Skye looked at him curiously.

"What?" she asked.

"I fail to see how humans can be so cruel to mere children!" he snapped, making everyone flinch back. "It is not rational!"

"Most of them aren't exactly rational…" Skye said quietly.


	5. Nightmares of the Future

ive weeks later, Skye was still bedridden, though the machines hooked up to her had gone down to consist of a heart monitor and an IV line. Today she planned on finally getting out of that bed! Nearly five months, she hadn't been allowed to walk!

She looked around and listened carefully for anyone outside before she turned off the heart monitor and unhooked it from her, and then shifted around so that she was sitting up, without anything supporting her. Ratchet would be ticked if he saw her now. Simmons would order her to lie down. Everyone else would forcibly make her lie back down. In the maybe five minutes that she had before she got a visitor, she was going to get up!

Breathing heavily, she carefully removed the IV and pushed against the bed. She felt awful, her muscles screaming in protest, the disuse and the torture not doing any good. She felt a grin slip onto her face as her feet touched the floor. The icy cold floor. Almost made her want to hide under the covers again.

She put more weight on her recently healed legs, felt them shake under her, but she managed to stand. She felt like letting out a victory whoop, but that would alert someone that she was up to something and then all her fun would be ruined. Instead, she took three steps and stumbled, catching herself just before she fell.

Oh, if one of them found out about this, she was SO DEAD! She jumped a little, a small giggle coming from her mouth as she landed smoothly. Seeing a pair of sweatpants of her, because someone had realized that she wasn't going to be cooped up there forever, she sld them on, along with a tank-top, debating on socks, but deciding that she had better not because if she fell, she would get caught. She all but skipped to the door, happily trying the knob. Then she scowled.

"Damn you, Ratchet!" she whispered, pushing the door again. Nope, still locked. Then she grinned again. The lock was electronic. Skye no longer had the bracelet on. Skye could hack it.

Then she saw that the door opened on the inside. She pulled and the door swung open easily, making her feel really dumb for not figuring it out. She glanced around the hallway and darted out, closing her door and locking it. That should deter them for a while, because Ratchet only did that when she was sleeping so she wasn't disturbed.

She went three hallways away before she saw Lennox and Ward dash right past her, talking about looking for her. Wow, so much for super agents. Peeking into a door, her hand touched the knob, but it shocked her. An alarm began blaring overhead. She dashed back to her room, well, more of stumbled, where Coulson, May, Simmons, and Ratchet, Ironhide, and Optimus' holoform was standing, getting updates from various agents and soldiers.

"Uh, what's the emergency?" she asked. Everyone turned to her in astonishment.

"SKYE! What exactly do you think you're doing? You should still be in bed, resting!" Simmons demanded, marching up to her and gently pushing her towards the bed. Skye ducked away from her and glared.

"I've BEEN resting! For months! I needed to move around, not stay cooped up in here forever!" Skye spat, actually angry now. She had been repressing her anger for so long, now it seemed to just be bursting out. She didn't understand why.

Simmons took a step back, fear in her eyes, but she wasn't looking at Skye, she was looking at the fiery blue aura that suddenly surrounded Skye. Skye had yet to notice.

"Skye, calm down. You don't have to go back to the bed, but calm yourself," May said gently, well, for her, resting a hand on Skye's shoulder. The contact broke Skye from the anger, replacing it with fear. What had just happened? All that anger, and she knew that not all of it was hers.

"W-what just happened?" Skye asked. She looked up at Simmons, who still looked at her with blatant fear in her eyes. Skye looked at her hands, which were still glowing, though it was fading She could still feel the anger, lingering just at the back of her mind. It wasn't hers!

"Be calm," Something said to her. Of course, that just made her panic even more. But the voice seemed to hum, the soothing noise calming her down. The anger was replaced with calm, but it wasn't Skye's and she just wanted it out. But it was so soothing, she couldn't seem to muster up any anger about it.

Simmons reached out to touch her and the anger started to return, making her flinch away, not wanting any harm to come to her sister figure.

"No, don't touch me. I don't want it to hurt you!" Skye said, backing away, absolutely terrified and confused, at the same time fighting to distinguish her own feelings from whatever was in her head.

The thing in her head flared up in annoyance and pulled a veil of calm over her. It was suffocating. Literally. Skye couldn't breathe. She gasped, clutching at her throat, her vision turning blurry as she fought against it.

"Be calm," it ordered again. She slipped into sweet oblivion, calmness embracing every part of her being. Her last fighting thought was: What the hell is happening to me?

Sam stared at the girl, maybe five years his senior, now handcuffed to the medical bed. No one had wanted to do it, but Galloway had threatened one to call one of Coulson's bosses and report that they had an 0-8-4 on the base that Coulson had knowingly neglected to report. Coulson reluctantly agreed to have her handcuffed and constantly monitored.

"She is fine," Primus told him. Sam hadn't told anyone about it. The All Spark had shifted into him. Skye had gone into the room where they had been keeping the All Spark shard. Something about her caused the large amount of remaining All Spark energy to zap into her. Sam himself only had a sliver inside himself. Skye had the rest. That was a lot of power to be held in one person. There was a reason why the cube had been so big, after all. What if all that energy killed her?

"She is not human. She is…. something I have not seen in millions of vorns. I believed her race to be extinct. A Mated pair must be on this planet," Primus said in amazement. Then the Creator's mood turned pensive. "If so, why is she not with her creators? They would have never allowed her to be on her own!"

Primus already knew everything, but he sometimes acted as though he did not to enable Sam to come to the answers himself. Sam found it annoying. Primus found it funny.

Sam thought about what she had told him. She had been in an orphanage. Maybe her parents were dead?

"The only ones who could kill her parents would be Cybertronians…" Primus informed him. Guess he was going to have to actually talk to her. If she let anyone see her, of course. She hadn't yet. The only one that had been able to convince her to let them in was Agent Ward, which everyone else seemed surprised about. If Sam was being honest, when Skye started to glow, it scared the crap out of him.

Sam took a deep breath and opened the door, shutting it despite her protests.

"You can hear him, too," he said, shutting her up fast. Her worried face turned to one of fear.

"You too? I knew there was something I liked about you. I just want it OUT. I don't want to feel their emotions or them MAKING me calm down… It's creepy."

"He," Sam corrected. "His name is Primus. You know that room you tried getting into? The one that shocked you?" Skye nodded slowly. "It holds a shard that held a lot of energy. Now it's in you. By a lot, I mean enough to power a planet ten times larger than Earth, sustain life, create new life, and bring back life, for the rest of eternity. Using about as much of its supply of energy as you would to open a can of soda."

Skye stared at him, then looked behind him where Ratchet and Optimus were standing shell-shocked, looking at the both of them. Sam caught a glimpse of his hand. It was glowing. "Oh slag," he cursed.

To say that Optimus was not impressed with his secrecy was an understatement. He understood why Sam did it, but he was still disappointed. Ratchet was mad because he hadn't been able to track any progressions or symptoms that Sam might have been showing.

"Samuel," Sam visibly flinched when Optimus said that instead of just Sam. "You should have informed us the moment Primus first spoke to you."

Sam hung his head. The human med bay had been quarantined for the only reason of keeping he and Skye from leaving.

"I didn't think you'd believe me. I know how much you guys love Primus, and I didn't want to offend you, either," Sam said meekly.

"Samuel, look at me," Optimus ordered. Sam felt like a little kid getting in trouble as he did as he was told. "Never be afraid to tell us something. Especially not if it pertains to Primus or your own well-being."

Sam hung his head again, mumbling an apology. Optimus vented irritably and gently pushed Sam's head back up with one digit of his servo. "Samuel, promise me that you will come to one of us if a similar situation happens."

"Promise," Sam said honestly.

"So, why exactly did you choose now to come talk to me, Sparky?" Skye asked. The three guys looked at her stupidly. "You know, because he has some of the All Spark in him? Sparky, Spark? No? Okay…"

"Oh, yeah, um, I wanted to know more about your past…. Primus told me something about what you are, about you race. He said that you were believed to be extinct, but you are here, so your parents must be as well, looking for you…" Sam said, sheepish because he had neglected to inform Optimus of this when he had been fessing up. The Prime glared at him.

Skye jolted up at that, interested instantly. "M-my race?" she paused and shook her head, getting back on track. Or attempted to. Ratchet answered instead, telling the story that Coulson had told him. Skye hadn't been in on the full details, apparently, because she sank to the ground, betrayal clear on her face.

Her breathing came fast and her vision blurred as she went into a full panic attack. How could he keep that from her? He knew how much she wanted to find her parents. He KNEW! It was almost as bad as Ward's betrayal! But… but now, she had just been told that her parents were monsters, murderers of an entire village. She could vaguely hear someone saying her chosen name. Would she have become a monster had she not been taken from her parents?

"They never would have become what you refer to as monsters had you not been taken from them," Primus told her. His voice in her head was not helping her to calm down. "In fact, those were not truly your parents, only agents of them," Primus said. Skye was now on the verge of passing out.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" she screamed, holding her head. Luckily, it was enough to break her from the edge, back to levels where she could mostly see those around her. Ward was walking towards her, worry clear on his normally stoic face.

She swung a fist at him and he let it connect. It hit his chest weakly as he scooped her up and carried her, allowing her to use him as her punching bag until she broke down into tears. Why couldn't she had just been normal? Just a normal kid, in a normal family, that got some dumb job that she hated but kept for the rest of her life?

Her rantings were stopped by Grant kissing her, bringing her life back into hyper focus. He pulled back and stared at her eyes curiously.

Skye was shocked for about two seconds before she was able to speak again. "Damn, Robot! I didn't know you could kiss like THAT!" she squealed like a teenager. She burst out laughing at the exasperated look he gave her, but she could see the relief in his eyes. She had worried them.

Sam burst out laughing to her left, making Grant glare over at him. "What, exactly, is so funny?"

"Sorry, sorry," he stuttered, his laughter ceasing as he caught the look. "Um, it's just that… she was all mad at you and at everything and hitting you, then you kissed her, and it's like you flipped a switch and she's back to normal…." he said, enough fear in his tone to make the Autobots take a protective step towards him.

Then Agent Ward, nicknamed Robot because of his hidden emotions, smiled genuinely. Skye poked him cautiously, causing the smile to slip but reappear just as quickly. "You broke him! You broke my robot!" she told sam angrily. Ward rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Not a robot, Skye," he reminded her. Skye rolled her eyes this time.

"You were when I met you," she muttered. "Then everything went down and I'm supposed to be mad at you still…" she added as she snuggled closer on his chest. She was feeling wiped out and her eyes were closing on their own accord. She was sound asleep before the sound of amused chuckling could reach her ears.

Ward looked at the young woman in his arms and sighed softly in content. Then he realized that others were watching, particularly and overly amused teenager who had been keeping potentially vital information from them. "Kid, Witwicky, right?"

The kid nodded. "Don't keep anything like that to yourself again, got it?" Again, the kid nodded, though he still looked amused. Ward sent him one last glare before carrying Skye onto her bed. He ran into a problem there. Skye had somehow developed a death grip on his neck and refused to let go. If she showed that much grip and strength in her training, she could probably do a lot of pull ups.

"Damnit," he muttered, tugging on her arms and only succeeding in getting her nails to dig into his skin. "Somebody help get her off of me?" he growled. Skye scowled in her sleep and nuzzled her head on his chest, making Ward's resolve to let her go soften.

He glared at the other guys in the room. They all backed away, arms raised in surrender. "We know enough from Major Lennox's ex-wife and Mikaela, as well as our own mates to never wake up a sleeping femme, especially not a human one," Optimus said, though there was clearly a lot of amusement coming from him. It was hard to tell, though, when he was in his bipedal mode.

"Same!" Sam squeaked out.

"So, wait, you're just going to make me sit here like this?" Ward asked as the two Autobots transformed and cowardly ran away like the devil was chasing them. Sam raced to the other side of the room and plugged in ear phones, turning the volume up loud so Ward couldn't ask him, or threaten him, for help.

Ward cursed inwardly and settled on Skye's bed and held her close, not that he had any choice in the matter. Not that he truly minded. Until Skye dug her nails into his flesh deeply enough to draw a fairly large amount of blood.

"Skye," Ward growled, shaking her gently. She snapped awake, pulled from her nightmare of being trapped in a war of metal and energon, what she would later learn was the first Great War, where the Cube had been found. She jerked away from him, literally throwing him to the ground. Only, he never hit it. He floated inches above the ground. Then higher and higher. Then he crashed back to the ground.

Skye's eyes were glowing. Their normally soft brown color was replaced with electric blue that seemed icy. She raised her arm, making Ward fly up, gasping for breath. With cruel laughter, he dissolved into nothing. Sam shot up, glowing as well. But he was trying to stop her. She smiled at him gently, moving him away without harming him. The humans who harmed her were still out there.

The next day, almost all the humans were gone from the planet, and Skye hovered over the shoulder of a mech with burning red optics, both grinning cruelly. Off to the side of them, Sam was being dragged along by Lennox, anger and hatred on their faces, but for the mech and the girl rather than the carnage. Still further away were two human looking creatures. They smiled cheerfully. Her parents. Fire surrounded one, Ice the other


	6. Death and Resurection

Skye snapped awake, moving her hand from the door knob that had shocked her. What had that been? Her wet face told her that she was crying.

"_That is your future if you do not remain calm,"_ Primus spoke. Skye looked around. No alarms blared. No people were running down the hall.

"I need to talk to Optimus, don't I?" she asked.

"_It would change your set path," _Primus said, sounding pleased by this.

Skye took in a deep breath and raced down the halls, surprised that she knew the way to the Autobot hangar. Optimus stood, getting multiple reports for the base's progress for finding HER. Just like he had probably looked when she had been missing.

"Uh… Sir?" she asked, unsure as to what she should call him.

"Agent Skye! Your team is looking for-" he started to say before he saw her tear streaked eyes.

"Sir, um, there was a door, and it didn't look like it was anything special. I grabbed the doorknob and it shocked me…. Someone named Primus is in my head and showed me something that will happen if I don't try to change it," she broke off, tears coming again as she thought of what the vision had told her.

Optimus knelt and gently took her into his servo and lifted her high above the ground.

"What did you see in your vision?" he asked. Skye noticed how he didn't rebuke what she said as false, didn't even show a hint of skepticism for her tale.

"I didn't even realize it was one until it happened. The alarms went off, I ran back to find everyone was looking for me. Simmons grabbed me and tried to force me back to bed rest, and I felt such anger… I got so scared because it wasn't mine. I.. I started glowing blue and Primus spoke in my head, telling me to be calm. That scared me more because the anger turned to calm and FORCED me to calm down…." she took a shaky breath before continuing, "I didn't know what was happening to me until Sam told me. Some All Spark energy had transferred to him in the Battle of Mission City. The last of it was held in the shard that's in that room…. Now apparently it's in me. He wants to tell you, but he's too scared that you won't believe him…. I went to sleep after you got done scolding him and locking us in quarantine. I had nightmare about a battle zone of metal, energon, and a lot of Cybertronians dead…. I panics when I woke up. I.. Oh God, I killed Grant in cold blood!"

Skye began to panic, a faint blue glow coating her skin. If Optimus hadn't believed her before, he did now. "Agent Skye, I assure you, Agent Ward is alive and searching for you. Please. Continue," he said.

"There was a time skip, and then almost all the humans were dead. Sam and Lennox were there, but they didn't want to be. I.. I couldn't hurt Sam or Lennox… Behind us were.. were my parents, I think. They were surrounded by ice and fire, coming from them. Sam looked so angry at me, and the mech we were with. He was scary, with blood red ey- I mean, optics, and I was on his shoulder… It was AWFUL," Skye said shakily, breaking into tears again. Optimus seemed to freeze at the mention of the other mech.

"Agent Skye, did the mech look like this?" he asked before shooting out a hologram of Megatron. Skye's screech of terror and surprisingly agile climb to his shoulder was the only answer he needed. "That, Agent Skye, was Megatron. He was killed by Sam in battle, using the Allspark."

"I saw him alive…. What if I did that? What if I brought him back?" Skye asked, still refusing to look over at the holoform again.

Optimus was silent for a moment. "Would you mind if we tested your ability to bring mechs back from the dead?"

Skye finally looked at the holograph. "As long as it's not him."

"Of course not. We do not wish to renew our recently ended war."

Optimus alerted Ratchet on Skye's whereabouts, closing the link quickly before Ratchet could order him to bring her back. He carried the not so human to the Cybertronian med bay, the one where only humans under protection of the Cybertronians were allowed inside. Skye caught sight of Jazz's body, only he didn't feel dead to her. He felt… like he was sleeping.

Skye was off of Prime's shoulder before he could even look at her, down so she was crouching on Jazz's chest. The glow around her body spread, enveloping Jazz's. Like magic, his optics flickered on and he creaked, trying to make sense of why a human girl was sitting on his chassis.

"Yo, Boss Bot, what's goin' on? Why d'ya look like ya seen a ghost?" he asked.

Optimus Prime, fearless leader of the Autobots, who hadn't grieved in years, laughed. It was a rich, booming sound. It brought Ironhide to the room, where he promptly glitched upon seeing Jazz awake and moving as though he had not been torn apart. Ratchet hefted a wrench and put more than a few new dents into Prime's helm for allowing Skye to do that without him nearby.

Speaking of Skye, she wavered on her feet, sitting abruptly on Jazz as the world spun around her. Jazz absentmindedly steadied her as he listened to the bots tell him about how he had been offlined by Megatron and how Skye had brought him back. The telling of who Skye was and why she was there surprised him, because she seemed so cheerful before she passed out.

Optimus suddenly broke off, finally noticing that Skye had passed out. He moved to move her, but stopped at Jazz's protest.

"Yo Boss Bot, let the lil' lady sleep," he snapped, warding off Prime's servo with one of his own. Ratchet growled at him warningly.

"He will allow her to sleep. He was moving her so I can give you a check up, you slagging glitch," he snapped. Uh oh. Ratchet apparently didn't take failing to save someone then they coming back anyways.

"Can't it wait until she wakes up, Docbot?" Jazz pleaded.

"No. Your internal systems were no-"

"Ma scans show I'm fine, Ratch. Don't blow a fuse. 'Sides, you should really scan yaself. Ya look awful," Jazz snapped. Ratchet had to be physically restrained to stop him from throwing his wrench at the saboteur. The jostling would have knocked Skye to the ground.

"_**Slagging glitch spawned waste of scrap metal!"**_ Ratchet snarled in Cybertronian. Amazingly enough, it was what woke Skye from her faint.

"Who's a slagging glitched spawned waste of scrap metal?" she mumbled, rubbing her temples in an attempt to relieve the pressure there. Looking up, she noticed the odd stares she was getting from the bots. "What? I was only repeating what Ratchet said!" Yes, it was childish, but it was a learned behavior from living at the orphanage.

"Nice going, Ratch, teach the kid how ta swear like a dock workah why don' ya?" Jazz laughed. He shut up when Optimus growled at him in warning. He, after all, had been a dock worker before being made into a Prime.

"Skye, take heed to NOT repeat what Ratchet says. His vulgar glossa need not corrupt curious humans," Optimus said, glaring at Ratchet.

"How was I to know she could understand me?" Ratchet snapped.

This whole thing was giving her even more of a headache. Some weird letters were floating across her head, a riddle she couldn't make sense of. But it seemed important. Another thing was flashing through her, a sense of impending danger. Not just for herself, but for everyone.

"Oh god, something bad is coming," she said before blacking out once more. Five seconds later, the alarms were set off. A 'Con, designation Ravage, had broke into the base. The shard was stolen. Sam was sent back home to get ready for college, despite his not wanting to. Sam didn't even know about the shard being stolen.

* * *

Megatron vented as yet another one of his soldiers informed him of how badly Starscream had led them in his stead. Back on Cybertron, he would have had his companions to speak with, but they had been separated on planet fall. Cybertron as a whole had once scoffed at the offer the organic race had made when the beings had first landed. They would provide companionship and undying loyalty for protection. It wasn't until it was found of their peculiar talents that the Cybertronians had accepted it.

A system had been made, one Cybertronian and one of them. They did not reveal the name of their race, but rather accepted the name the Cybertronians gave them, Elementals. Megatron had been being assigned to his when it was discovered that he had a mate. Therefore, Megatron had also been assigned to her.

When he had taken over the Decepticons, they proved their loyalty by warning him of spies, traitors, and other undesirable attacks to his cause, as well as killing other Elementals when they rebelled against his cause. He trusted them to stay loyal to him alone, and they in turn had trusted him with their lives.

A pull in his spark made him look up. He hadn't felt a pull on his spark in a very long time, since he had collapsed into the fragile ice that coated that northern and southern poles of the planet. It seemed that they had felt his return to life and were alerting him that they were coming. Soon.

"Get out of my sight, all of you," he growled, glaring around, daring anyone to disobey or question him. None did. Pity. He could have used the target practice.

Not a breem passed before the temperature began to seemingly malfunction in their base. Megatron let a twisted smile grace his face before shifting his optics down to look at his companions.

The amount of grief on the male's face almost moved his cold spark, as did the hope in the female's.

"Greetings," the male said, bowing respectfully. Megatron sent out his holoform, a raven haired, well groomed man in a black suit and a deep purple dress shirt under his jacket. If it weren't for his cold red eyes, you would have thought just another rich business man.

The female didn't bow. She grinned, a thing as beautiful as it was cruel, and touched her forehead with his, a sign of respect and joy to see him. "We have missed you, Lord."

"What have you been doing since my absence, Isa?" he asked the female.

Her expression twisted into something indistinguishable for a moment. "We had a child," she murmured, stepping away from him. The male took her and held her close, his anger showing clearly on his face.

"Where is this child, Pyro?" Megatron asked. A child meant another loyal companion for him.

"She was taken by a village of those disgusting humans when we were moving. One of our guards was protecting her. He had set her down for a moment to ensure that the route he was taking was secure. He was killed for his crime," Pyro growled.

The guards that he spoke of weren't truly sentient. They were beings made with a small part of their element, mixed with a frame. They lived to follow their orders to the letter, and normally killed themselves if they failed them.

"But she was found," Isa told him. She pulled something from her pocket, a small photo. Megatron took it, examining the child's face. To say child was only partially true. She would have had to be an adult if she grew up believing she was human. On her own. Megatron's disgust for those insects only increased. The girl would have been under his care had the humans not done what they had done.

He sent an alert to his troops that if they saw her, they were to bring her directly to him in the best condition possible. Most of the underlings set out, hoping to gain favor.

"She will be returned to you, my companions," he said solemnly. "But until then, I have another insect to catch."

* * *

Skye had taken to riding around on Optimus' shoulder, far away from Simmons' reach, Ward's overprotective watch, and the rest of the team's general fussing over her. Optimus had even allowed her to sleep in his alt-mode, barely even noticing her as he went around the base in holoform to get easier access to everything.

When she wasn't with him, she was either hiding in the van or with Jazz. He had grown fond of her over the past few days and was glad to let her tag along, listening to her talk and taking her advice when he was pranking his Bonded, Prowl.

Currently, Skye was sleeping in Optimus' alt-mode, waking up when the speeding mech hit a pothole in the road.

"Where are we going?" she asked. Optimus nearly hit another car as he swerved in shock. Apparently he had forgotten she was there.

"To Sam's college," he replied once his driving was back under control.

"Oh. Cool! I haven't seen him in a while. Do you think he would mind if I stayed in the States with him for a few days?" she mused.

"You cannot hide from your team forever, Skye," he warned her.

"I know…. but until I'm sure that I'm not going to lose it and kill every human that comes across my path, I'm going to try," she said, sitting up and rubbing the last of the sleep from her eyes.

"Why are we here?"

"Because we need Sam to speak with your government. Maybe he will be able to make them see reason," Optimus said mournfully. Skye shook her head in disgust for how stupid they were being, forcing herself not to panic when Primus agreed with her.

When they finally stopped, it was in a graveyard. Sam was angrily sitting on top of a gravestone, glaring at Optimus.

Skye leapt out and hugged him, "Hey Sammy! How has college been? Made any friends? Did you miss me? Oh, did any girls try to jump you yet?" her rapid succession of questions made him grin.

"Hey Skye! College has been fine. I just started… Of course I missed you, all of you! On the last question, I'm not even going to dignify that with an actual answer," he said, barely being able to breathe as she hugged him.

Her eyes flashed blue and she backed up, clutching her head in agony for a moment. She saw the glyphs again, heard the riddle, she hated it!

"Skye! Skye, are you okay?" Sam asked, and suddenly she was back, Sam holding her up, worry on his face.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine. Sudden headache is all," she supplied, using the same excuse she had used with Ratchet the last time it had happened.

Optimus and Bumblebee snorted in disbelief, but Skye pretended not to notice. "Huh, I've been getting a couple of those lately, too," Sam said, gazing at her quizzically.

Skye glanced at him sharply, a gesture that did not go unnoticed by the bots. However, Optimus decided that they had more pressing matters to attend to.

At the end of the meeting, Sam ended up storming away, walking back to the college until Bee found him and Skye dragged him into his cabin. Sam huffed, but when they got back to campus, didn't protest to her following him to his room. He knew how she had been avoiding everyone.

Skye did not like Leo. Leo DID like Skye. Skye didn't like that Leo liked her.

"Hey, chica, why are you hanging out with Witwacky over there?" he asked, what was supposed to be a charming smile on his face. Skye froze and slowly turned towards him.

With quick, even strides, she had him backed into the wall, her soft brown eyes hard with anger. "You need a lesson in respect. First of all, I'm hanging out with WitWICKY because he's my brother, second of all, don't call me chica, comprende?" she snarled. Leo looked like he was about to pee himself while Sam was laughing his head off behind them.

"Si, ma'am. Crystal clear," Leo stuttered.

"Good," she said, stepping away and grabbing her cell phone. "Let's get some pizza. Leo's paying!" she said as she ordered half cheese and half sausage. No need to get two of them.

They ate their pizza, Leo not complaining at all about having to pay. Around midnight, they nodded off, talking, still sitting up.

Skye woke up, noticing how Sam and Leo were gone, probably to their class. Skye decided that she could sleep a little bit longer before the door slammed open and Sam burst in, talking what would be gibberish to anyone else.

"Sammy! Sam! Calm down, it's okay. You don't need to tell me. I know. Okay? I know," she soothed, holding him and rubbing his back as though he were a small child. Sam stopped his ramblings, just as Leo burst in, yelling about Sam going crazy. Then this other girl came in and tried to push Leo and Skye out.

"Uh, yeah, I don't think so," Skye snarled, blocking the strange girl from getting to Sam. "He's in a committed relationship, and also, you aren't fooling anyone but Leo over there, _**pretender**_," she added, seeing the metallic glint on her skin.

The pretender's skin seemed to unravel, leaving gleaming metal behind. Mikaela decided that it was a good time to enter the room.

The next twenty minutes of running passed in a blur, Skye really only tuning into the world again as a freaking HELICOPTER came straight at them. Mikaela slammed on the brakes, and they tried to get out, only, they ended up hanging out the sides of the car, dangling above the buildings.

"SHIT!" Skye screamed, pulling herself back up into the car and then helping Sam in. "We'regoingtodiewe'regoingtodiewe'regoingtodie!" she chanted as they began to plummet to directly at the room of some abandoned factory. Luckily the car came equipped with airbags, or else they would have died.

The car was split in two, the blade barely missing them as it passed. Like the frightened beings they were, they huddled together, looking around.

The appearance of Megatron was not what they were expecting. His red optics were cold, his faceplates set in a cold sneer.

"Come closer, Boy," he ordered. Sam stumbled closer, pushing the others further away. "Yes, you remember me, don't you, Boy?" Megatron practically purred. He really was enjoying this. His servo snapped out, tossing Sam and causing him to land painfully on a concrete slab.

"I'm going to kill you, Boy. Slowly, painfully. But first, we have some… delicate… work to do. Doctor," Megatron spat as he easily held Sam down. Skye stared in horror as memories of her torture welled up in her mind. Suddenly, she saw the symbols, but from a holograph being projected by the probe they had just put into Sam.

Finally having enough, and listening to the insistent chanting of Primus, telling her that Megatron wasn't meant to see them, she hefted up a heavy brick and tossed it with perfect aim at the Decepticon Tyrant, the object getting him right in the optic, not breaking it, though.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" she screamed, holding another brick in her hand and preparing to throw it. To state it plainly, Megatron did not appreciate the first brick and angrily swatted away the second, raising his servo to snatch her off of the balcony in a similar way he had done to Sam. Skye darted around it, pushing Leo and Mikaela away.

"Would you two run already?" she spat. They finally got the picture and darted away, leaving Sam and Skye alone with the insane mech.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sam shouted up to her, still held down by Megatron, but struggling again. The little bot was crawling closer and closer to him, ready to kill him when he was suddenly crushed by Skye jumping skillfully off the broken edge and right on top of him.

"Don't even think about it," she spat. Megatron growled and finally grabbed her, lifting her high in the air, ignoring her screams and struggling.

"Cease you movement, child," he finally snapped in annoyance. Skye and Sam both faltered in their struggles, not sure who he was talking to. Skye glanced over at Sam, shocked to see he had begun glowing blue. He was staring up at her in shock, making her assume that she was glowing as well.

"What have we here? You BOTH have All Spark energy inside you? It appears your death will not be by my servos, Boy. I, after all, am not fool enough to order the destruction of the only hope my race has of surviving," Megatron sneered, now holding both of their struggling forms.

"Slag it," Skye cursed under her breath, hoping help would come soon. Help did come, in the form of Optimus crashing through the roof, making Megatron drop them in surprise. Luckily they landed on the balcony. Optimus gently picked them up and transformed around them, fleeing the scene in hopes of getting them away to safety.

Skye and Sam both knew it was over when they were forced into the forest. "Hide," the Prime ordered them, and Skye dragged the shocked Sam away, trying to calm him down at the same time of doing it for herself.

"Sam, Sam, you need to calm down. We-we're letting off All Spark energy, and they can trace that, right? That's why Sector Seven hid it in the Dam, so they couldn't find it. If you don't calm down, they'll find-" she cut off as a bot slammed over the top of their hiding place, spotting them as he rolled.

"Skye?" Sam asked, staring at her.

"Yes?" she asked.

"We should run, right?" he asked, still not moving.

"Yes, run. Definitely run."

So they ran, going from hiding place to hiding place, never leaving the vicinity and making sure that Optimus knew they were safe. Skye looked over the edge of a fallen tree staring in horror as Optimus was ganged up on and killed, stabbed through the spark from behind by Megatron.

Skye and Sam were brought to their knees at the sight and at the feeling of the Prime's life flickering so close to them.

Throwing caution to the wind, they ran out to him, not hearing the cry of battle and fury coming from the Autobots as they finally reached their location. "R-run," Optimus ordered as his optics finally dimmed, putting him out of his misery.

They weren't sure which one of them pulled the other away from Prime's frame, or who pushed who into running, they just knew that they were in pain, Bumblebee had them in his cab, and they had just watched the undefeatable Prime be taken out in one of the most cowardly ways possible.


End file.
